Leominster woman fundraises to teach English in Morocco

Thursday

Mar 20, 2014 at 6:00 AM

By Eric Stanway CORRESPONDENT

LEOMINSTER — Literacy is one of the benchmarks by which any culture can thrive and flourish. Unfortunately, however, many societies languish in a situation where many of its citizens can neither read or write to any appreciable level. Consequently, volunteers are needed to encourage these skills in the local populace.

Leominster resident Taylor Smith, a student attending Emerson College in Boston as a journalism and political communication double major, is using online crowd funding as her way of reaching out to the residents of Rabat, Morocco, helping to give them an economic advantage by teaching them how to read and write English. A self-described "international news junkie," she hopes to create positive changes in the world, one step at a time.

"There's definitely a need in that area — not only in Morocco but in North African countries in general," Ms. Smith said. "As a rule, Morocco is pretty progressive, but it's nowhere near where it needs to be in terms of English-speaking literacy. My intention is to go to this developing country, which is really trying to improve itself. The education index, however, is still languishing at .48 percent, so it's not even close to being average."

Rabat, the name of which means "fortified palace" in Arabic, is the capital and third-largest city in Morocco, with a metropolitan population of 1.2 million. Located at the Atlantic Ocean and the Bou Regreg River, it is popularly known as the "Washington of North Africa" because of its opulent public buildings and wide green spaces.

Despite its importance as an urban center, however, Rabat still shares many of the economic woes that are rife in the rest of the county. With an unemployment rate of 10 percent and a high-school dropout rate topping 38 percent, many of its residents are trapped in a cycle of poverty and despair. Learning to speak and write English can make all the difference to these people, as it opens up new economic opportunities.

For the last several years, the international volunteering organization Ubelong has been making strides in enabling volunteers to visit the country, working in women's empowerment, education and care giving.

"Ubelong has a pretty big base in Morocco, so I'll have a lot of support," Ms. Smith said. "They've been working a lot with the local school system and other organizations. Things are well-established there, so it wouldn't be like I was starting from scratch. The social infrastructure is already in place, so I'd be working with other volunteers, trying to push their base further."

Although this will be Ms. Smith's first time visiting Morocco, she's not unfamiliar with the area in general.

"I've been to Africa several times," she said. "As a matter of fact, I was there just last year, participating in a project with 12 other volunteers. At that point, we were trying to develop a public relations strategy for one particular town."

Even though it's not really possible to teach English in the three weeks allotted by Ubelong, Ms. Smith sees little difficulty in making a difference in that short time, because of the efforts that have already been made by the organization.

"I know it's only a brief period, but that's why I chose a situation that already has a base," she said. "This way, I'm not working from the ground up; they already have the foundation in place, and I can build on that."

Ms. Smith sees this experience as an opportunity to launch her future career.

"I'm definitely planning on building on this in the future," she said. "I took the Foreign Service Exam with the State Department. I'm seriously considering becoming a foreign service officer, specializing in Africa. So, this is really a long-term commitment."

In all, Ms. Smith says that she needs to raise $2,000 through the crowd-sourcing campaign, which will cover her airfare and lodging.

"Anything above that will go straight into helping the schools in Morocco," she said. "I'm really hoping that I can make this work and be a real agent for positive change in that country."